Arizona's new reading law has high stakes

Proficiency a must to advance grade levels

This year's Arizona first-graders must prove they can read proficiently in three years or they'll be held back in school.

That shines a spotlight on first-grade classrooms like Tanya Pawl's in central Phoenix, where 6- and 7-year-olds spend hours each school day learning how to put their A-B-Cs to use.

"First grade is so important," said Pawl, a teacher for 10 years. "The teacher has so much magic in that."

Starting in 2013-14, all third-graders in Arizona must prove that they are reading proficiently. If they fail, they will not advance to fourth grade.

Reading well by third grade is vital to future academic success, studies show. And fluency - reading with comprehension and intonation - predicts eventual high-school graduation, according to the American Educational Research Association.

Last year, the Arizona Legislature passed, and the governor signed, the high-stakes reading mandate, House Bill 2732, titled Move On When Reading, which is modeled after a 2002 Florida law. Other states, including Massachusetts, Indiana and Utah, have similar laws.

Arizona has a lot of ground to make up. More than 4,000 third-graders statewide fell "far below" the third-grade reading standards on the spring 2011 Arizona's Instrument to Measure Standards test.

And that worries Denise Gary, founder and executive director of the non-profit Kids Need to Read, based in Mesa.

"I don't think they (educators and policy makers) are doing the job they need to be doing," Gary said. "Why are our kids not learning to read?

"Literacy is the most critical tool we can give children."

Gary said an emphasis on standardized tests detracts from teaching reading and quashes the joy of reading for students. Children who fail to learn how to read need reading specialists, not punishment, she argues.

"Why are they punishing children with the inadequacy of our system?" she said. She also worries that the mandate could create a bulge in the system if too many kids are held back.

A report last year by Voices for America's Children found that states, including Arizona, are exaggerating students' reading levels. It found that too many students are passed through the school system even though their scores from the National Assessment of Educational Progress show their comprehension often lags. It found that two-thirds of the nation's fourth graders are not reading at grade level.

President Barack Obama has become involved in the debate over school achievement, disclosing a list of criteria last week that would allow states to opt out of federal No Child Left Behind Standards. That would not affect Arizona's state-mandated third-grade reading requirement.

In Tanya Pawl's class at Crockett Elementary School in the Balsz School District, reading instruction comes in two chunks. It begins with Pawl reading to her class of 25 students for 40 minutes as they follow along and answer questions about the story. That is followed by 40 minutes rotating among seven individual reading stations to fine-tune their skills.

"It's important to think about the number words," Pawl tells the class as she reads a book about animals.

"Remember our sight words," she tells the students. "And as you read, pay attention to the order."

Pawl, 33, uses a board with plastic pockets to single out words and letters in the story.

"We used those number words to tell the story. Retell the story thinking about that order," she tells the class.

Annabeth Hernandez, 6, takes turns with 7-year-old Joseph Avalos Avila answering questions about the story. They are partners, or as Pawl calls them, the jellies and the peanut butters.

Pawl's goal is to entertain and teach, but she knows she has her work cut out for her.

Justin Yanez Garcia and Fawzia Mohamud team up to work on a reading exercise in Tanya Pawl's first-grade class at Crockett Elementary School in the Creighton School District in central Phoenix.

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The reading law

Move On When Reading, House Bill 2732, requires students to prove they are reading at grade level by third grade. Those whose reading "falls far below the third-grade level" will not advance to fourth grade starting in 2013-14.

Students will be assessed in:

 Phonics.

 Phonemic awareness.

 Reading comprehension.

 Fluency.

 Vocabulary.

Exceptions to the law include students:

 With a disability as defined by state law.

 Who are learning English and have had fewer than two years of English instruction.